While Blooming Earth Flowers and Burning Fork signed our lease for Suite 103 @ West Jackson Workshops two weeks ago, our term begins today, and we are SOOOO excited!! This will be my very first pottery/art studio outside my home (and outside a school classroom), so this is a big move for me.

Currently, the entire contents of my studio is still sitting in Kentucky, just as I left it after working there a few weeks ago. I have a little, ahem, packing to do yet, but never mind that! I’ll be heading there this weekend to get it all loaded into a moving van, and plan to move it in to my brand new studio at the end of next week. In the meantime, I’m daydreaming about how I’ll arrange everything, and how great it’s going to be!

The space I am moving into is right next door to the architecture office (Sanders Pace Architecture) that is right next door to my current office and retail space at 514 W. Jackson. All in the same building, actually. I’ve been pondering this move for a while, trying to figure out the best way to make my art and teach classes with the absence of anywhere to put a studio in our new house here in Knoxville. (Well, the house is actually 110 years old, but it’s new to us, and considerably smaller than our Ky. house.)

At one point my husband and I thought we might build a garage in our back yard, but decided that a) we like our backyard, and b) it would cost a small fortune and possibly take forever to build one. Suite 103 at West Jackson Workshops had been empty the entire time I’ve rented office space here (since November), but there was always talk of others moving in at some point. Not to mention the fact that I had no one to share the 1,000+ square feet of space with. So I half-heartedly scoped out some other rental locations, not liking anything I saw and wondering where in the world I was going to house that big, heavy kiln and tons of other pottery equipment.

Then, sort of all at once, I found out Stacey was looking for a place for her growing floral biz, and the possibility of other renters taking Suite 103 seemed to have fallen through. After much consideration and number crunching and meeting and planning, we were able to decide that Suite 103 was just the place for us! It is sunny and white and beautiful (just like the office space I share next door with Nathanna and Mockingbird Events). And I’m sure it’s going to be conducive to lots of creativity and art making and sharing! Come visit!

I’ve included a few “before” pics here, as in, before we’re moved in, so you can kind of get an idea of the space. The patio, which is shared with my office space buddies next door, needs a little TLC, but we hope to get lots of use out of it this summer!